Atwater blames Broncos’ O-line for much of the offensive woes

After looking at the game film, Steve Atwater had one primary compliment for Drew Lock’s game against the Falcons - Drew Lock wasn’t as bad as he thought while watching the game.

It’s not great, but it is something.

“Drew Lock actually didn’t play as bad as I thought the first few quarters,” Atwater admitted, noting that offensive line protection was pretty terrible, which didn’t help things.

“He made a couple of bad decisions, but I thought he did ok; I thought he did enough for us to win,” Atwater added. “But our offensive line has to step it up, get footwork together, make sure not tripping over each other. ...I’m not as disappointed as I was.”

But that doesn’t mean the Hall of Fame safety isn’t critical.

Noting that the Broncos “probably aren’t going to the Super Bowl this year,” (love ya, Steve!) Atwater definitely wants cleaner and crisper play from the offense, primarily...you guessed it...the O-line.

Benjamin Allbright asked about how to get Phillip Lindsay involved more, as well as if screen passes - which have been a foundation of a Pat Shurmur offense - could help the offense.

Once again, Atwater had his eye on the offensive line.

“We still don’t have the same five guys starting majority of the games, plus we have a young Lloyd Cushenberry at center, and he doesn’t have the strength and punch to handle the strength of those defensive tackles yet,” Atwater said. “We’re like a kid who is three years old and wants to be five. We’re just not there.”

The Smilin Assassin would love to see more of No. 30 too - and not because Melvin Gordon isn’t playing well but because the running attack from both would be highly effective.

But again...the offensive line needs to make it easier.

“I would like to see more of Phillip Lindsay in there. Neither one of the guys are having super great seasons because of inconsistency of the offensive line,” Atwater said. “When you have that, it’s going to be difficult for anyone to do well. I know when [the linemen] are looking at the film, they’re saying, ‘We cannot do this.’”

In fact, Dalton Risner said as much on Monday.

“We work our asses off every week in practice—that’s not the case—it’s about coming out and executing and each of us not taking plays,” Riser said. “It can’t be the o-line one play, it can’t be the wide receivers the next, the quarterback the next, and then the running backs. It needs to be all 11 of us on the same play doing our jobs and that starts with us in our position groups and then honestly on a smaller level it starts with us as individuals. We’ve got to do our job.”